A MARRIED father from Guildford who was found in possession of large amounts of child pornography – some of it the most extreme kind – is standing trial this week.

Peter Stilwell, 57, from Woodlands Road, was arrested after police found 1,789 indecent photographs of children on computer equipment seized from his home.

There were 1,579 images in the least serious category at level one, but 115 images in level four and 11 images at level five – the most explicit category.

Mr Stilwell, who faces 21 counts of making indecent photos of a child and a further two counts of distributing indecent images of a child, denies all charges against him.

Graham Smith, prosecuting, said items including an iPhone, a laptop, a desktop computer, an external hard drive and a range of CDs were recovered in a raid at the defendant’s house following concerns raised by an American social website provider ‘Ning’.

“Authorities contacted Surrey Police as a result of Ning contacting them,” said Mr Smith at Guildford Crown Court on Tuesday.

Mr Smith said that an email found on the defendant’s laptop from Ning customer services to an email address beginning P.Stilwell began: “We are writing to let you know your network Naturist Friends was removed because we believe it has child pornography on it.”

Detective Constable Michael Selcon, exhibits’ officer in the case, was called to the stand to give evidence.

DC Selcon, who has worked in the online investigation team at Surrey Police for the last 10 years, said his team had gone to Mr Stilwell’s family home on May 25 last year.

During the first police interview with DC Selcon later that day, the defendant declined a solicitor.

DC Selcon asked him: “Have you ever recorded images of children?”

Mr Smith said the defendant had answered: “Yes – not indecent ones.”

During the interview, Mr Stilwell refused to give police the password to his email accounts.

“I am not going to tell you because it is intrusive and I don’t like people intruding,” he told the officers.

He was then asked if he had given any others permission to access his email and he said he had not.

“Mr Stilwell was asked further questions about internet access and answered no comment to all questions,” said Mr Smith.

The court also heard allegations that Mr Stilwell had used different online personas, such as one called Emma Nuddy, for which a hotmail address had been created.

DC Selcon said a folder entitled Emma Nuddy had been found on the defendant’s computer which contained – among other things – a naked photo of a young child.

Other files were found to contain pictures including child abuse photographs involving a naked adult and others of children as young as four years old.

Mr Smith told the jury information found in files on Mr Stilwell’s computers showed evidence of movie clips – one relating to an eight-year-old girl.

Internet search terms used on one of the defendant’s computers included phrases such as “pre-teen nude” and “nudist children”.

In a later police interview on February 3, this year, the defendant gave a statement to police.

He said: “I stand by the account I gave in my previous interview – I have not downloaded or distributed any indecent photos of children.”

After making an application to Judge Suzan Matthews, Mr Smith was allowed to tell jurors yesterday (Thursday) morning of a previous conviction the defendant has, dating from February 2001.

The jury was also told that at that time the defendant had admitted to using the user name stormzero. “He wanted to use the name Zero...but it was in existence so he could not use Zero.”

In the contacts folder on Mr Stilwell’s computer when searched in 2010, police found the name Nudezero in use. Defending, John Femi-Ola, said: “The defendant’s case is he had no idea how this material got on to his computer.”